Music filled the halls of Milton High on Friday, January 5, and Saturday, January 6, when over 400 students participated in the Massachusetts Music Educator Association Eastern Senior District Festival (MMEA), a two-day commitment that allowed students from all over Eastern Massachusetts to rehearse and perform several pieces with one another.

Although this was the first time that MHS hosted the festival, this is not the first time this school year that hundreds of musicians flocked to our school to show off their skills. With help from the MHS parents that make up The Friends of Art and Music Education (FAME), the music department also hosted the auditions for the festival last November.

Of course, both occasions included a lot of behind-the-scenes work to accommodate well the chorus, concert band, jazz band, and orchestra students from the 30 cities and towns that make up Massachusetts’s Eastern District.

The preparations for the festival began on Thursday when students with classes in the music department and members of the Tri-M Music Honor Society helped to make room for the singers and instrumentalists in the auditorium, the library, and the music hallway.

The next day, for music students who weren’t a part of the festival, the regular class was replaced by directing the participating students (and their chaperons) into their respective spaces, moving equipment, and then watching them rehearse in the auditorium.

Julia Hanna, the chorus director, said that Rebecca Damiani, the band director, “really took the lead on making this happen and on organizing the schedule and having a really detailed outline so we all knew what needed to happen,” which was important because “bringing all those logistics to life was the hardest thing.”

Finally, Friday was over and it was the day of the big performance. Several students from Milton could be seen in the different ensembles. Emily Bohlin, Nate Brown, Atticus D’Alessandro, Ruby Dolgon, Lucy Hollingsworth-Hays, Julia Mangum, Fedor Myshkin, and Florian Zoll all participated.

Senior Lucy Lucy Hollingsworth-Hays, who has participated in many of these festivals before,

said that her favorite part is being able to work on “harder,” “more diverse” songs “you never would have gotten to sing otherwise.”

In the end, the music educators were happy–and tired–after giving so many young musicians the chance to improve upon their harmonies, rhythms, intonation, style, and love of music.

For Hanna, “what stands out was how incredible the ensembles sounded. If you went around and walked around to the different ensembles, they were so impressive [and] the conductors were all amazing to work with.”

Thankfully, the music continues; the Junior District Festival will be in March (not at MHS though), and after auditioning on February 3rd, several students from MHS hope to participate in the Senior and Junior SEMSBA Festivals in March and May. Meanwhile, Atticus D’Alessandro and Nate Brown will go on to perform at Symphony Hall in Boston for the MMEA All-State Festival on March 23.